When biryani takes centre-stage

Foodie Madness Worldwide, run by AccorHotels is an international contest to select the best local speciality of a country. It is conducted in 16 countries across the globe and each country has to defend their dish and the global audience will vote for the best speciality. “There were prelims organised by AccorHotels. They chose six bloggers from India for a contest to select a single dish that can unify the country. I chose gulab jamun because it is a dessert everybody can relate to. Each blogger should write about it and upload the details on social media. Based on the number of likes and engagements, the winner will be chosen. I won the contest and now am representing India on the global platform,” says Dr Wasim Mohideen aka Chennai Foody. 

For the final round, the selected bloggers from 16 countries had to pick one dish and create an easy recipe. And Wasim picked nothing other than biryani. “When I selected gulab jamun for the prelims, my friends asked me why I didn’t choose biryani. Biryani is one dish that the entire country can relate to — biryani is an emotion. I chose the easy lamb biryani and it is my family recipe. Also, the south Indian style biryani is generally looked upon as the holy grail of biryani. I shot the video with the help of my friend Antony. Starting October 5 there will be global voting for the 16 entries, until October 25,” he explains, adding, “And the winner is decided purely based on the number of votes.”